At least 113 dead in jade mine landslide
HPAKANT: The death toll from a mudslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar surged to over 100 yesterday, authorities said, in one of the worst accidents ever to hit the perilous industry.
“A total of 113 bodies been found so far,” Myanmar Fire Service said in a Facebook post.
A local police officer said search and rescue efforts had been suspended due to heavy rains.
The landslide trapped workers under a mound of refuse, authorities said.
The miners were collecting stones in the jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin state when a wave of mud caused by heavy rain buried them, the fire service department said.
“We are still working on the rescue process,” the department’s Facebook post said.
Deadly landslides and other accidents are common in the poorly regulated mines of Hpakant.
Media have reported scores of people killed in Hpakant in recent years, many of them freelance “jade pickers” who scour tailings — the residue from mining — for stones that have been missed by larger operators.
Tar Lin Maung, an information ministry official in Hpakant, told Reuters by phone the landslide yesterday happened in the early morning.
Official sales of jade in Myanmar were worth US$750.04 million (23 billion baht) in 2016-17, according to data published by the government as part of an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
But experts believe the true value of the industry is much larger.